Phantom X
by Kiwi Lee Scipio
Summary: Daniel is on the hunt of an alien from The List, taking him to Casper High only to find himself biting off more than he can chew. Takes place before Season 2 in DP and before Book 1 of Daniel X. Warning, this story is not finished but I plan on doing so, it just might take me a while.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Danny kept his face down, trying to use his black bangs to cover his eyes as he watched the new science teacher. They were supposed to be coping down their new vocab words for the week, but something was off about the middle aged man in front of the class as he passed through the rows of desks.

The new teacher turned and took a new path, coming straight for Danny. Ok, call it paranoia but it felt like it. Danny quickly went back to actually writing down the long list, glad his cursive made it easier for him to write fast and neat.

"Mr. Fenton, do write quicker." Mr. Ledwidge said, stopping at the boy's desk to get everyone to look at him. "Everyone else has already passed Salinity while you're still on Hydrothermal."

Snickers fed out of a few of the A-Listers, Dash primarily, sending a wave of annoyance through Danny. He glanced up at the teacher, surprised and almost angered to see the hint of a smile creeping out onto his lips.

Danny looked back at the board, searching for the next H word and hoping the teacher would leave him alone.

Thankfully Mr. Ledwidge took the hint, continuing his path down the line of desks. As the man started back to the front, a folded piece of paper landed on Danny's desk. He turned to where it came from to see Tucker giving him a sad smile.

Danny opened the note to see, in Tucker's badly askewed handwriting, "Dude, relax. He's just trying to get a reaction out of you."

Danny repositioned his pen and quickly wrote, "But why me? It's like I'm God's personal Comic Central!" Danny threw the note back to Tucker only to receive a muffled laugh, gaining the black haired boy a satisfied smile.

"Mr. Fenton. Mr. Foley. May I ask what is so funny?" Mr. Ledwidge asked, appearing in between the two desks almost as if he'd teleported there.

"Err-uh, nothing, sir!" Danny tried, his smile quickly gone as the man picked up the mote from Tucker's desk.

Mr. Ledwidge skimmed through the two sentences only to crumple it up and make an awe inspiring basket from the back row to the trashcan by his desk at the front of the class.

A bang got Danny's attention back to the teacher, shooting himself backwards in his chair as the graying teacher leaned close, his hands gripping the desk. "If I catch you slacking off in my class again, you'll wish I'd put you in detention."

Danny gulped, not used to a teacher being this savage. A smirk appeared on the teacher's face almost as if he was glad at the boy's reaction.

"Everyone, back to work." Mr. Ledwidge ordered, staring his almost black eyes into Danny's blue ones before turning around to get back to his desk.

Finally the bell rang, releasing the class for lunch. As soon as the trio made it out of the room, Danny found himself relaxing a bit, glad to be out of Mr. Ledwidge's sight.

"Maybe you were right and he is after you." Tucker said as they headed towards the cafeteria.

"Ya, it's like Mr. Crazy was trying to get you angry or something." Sam admitted.

"Don't I get enough hassle from ghosts?" Danny asked, shaking his head.

"He wasn't a ghost, was he?" Tucker asked.

Danny shook his head. "No, or at least my ghost sense didn't go off."

"Still, he knows something he shouldn't." Sam said, picking up a tray as they made it to the line. "I'd keep my eyes open for anything out of the ordinary."

"Always do." Danny smiled, picking up his tray to follow the girl.

"Hey Sam, pass that pork burger." Tucker called, grabbing his tray and following suit.

"Ew! Tucker! You have any idea what they do to make that thing!?" Sam cried, moving away from the offending sandwich.

Danny looked up and muttered, "A whole new lever to the term Food Fight."

"Ok, that's the second time you've done something like that." Tucker said, reaching in front of the boy to grab his burger.

"Done what?"

"Refer to God." Tucker explained, getting Sam's eye brow to go up.

"I guess hanging around you two so much is finally wearing off." Danny nervously laughed.

"What do you mean, we barely do anything about our religions around you." Sam pointed out. She motioned forward, "Well, besides Christmas/Hanukkah."

"Ya, even my Southern Baptist parents don't say anything about you being atheist." Tucker added.

"I'm not atheist…my parents just never had a religion other than science." Danny tried as Sam paid for her food. He pulled out his wallet and did the same before waiting for Tucker. "And even with my crazy life, I'm not sure if I really believe in anything."

Tucker turned towards his friend, picking up his tray so he could follow them to their table. "You never answered my question." Tucker eyed his friend as they sat down across from each other, Sam sitting next to Danny.

Danny shrugged, opening his mouth to answer only to be interrupted by the collar of his shirt to be pulled back, dragging him backwards off the bench and onto his back on the floor.

"Hey, Fenturd." Dash's voice said as Danny opened his eyes to find the bully standing above him. "I've got a preposition for you."

"Oh, he knows a big word like that." Sam muttered.

Dash growled at the girl, but kept himself together enough not to hurt her. Looking back down, he explained, "Tomorrow I'm supposed to show some new kid around school, but tomorrow morning, I'm not going to be here so I need you to do it. Do that and I might lighten up on you this week."

"Sure." Danny said, nodding his head as well as he could.

"Be in the front office at 8 o'clock sharp." Dash warned before walking away.

"Well, that was new." Sam commented as Danny picked himself off the floor.

"Hey, as long as this new kid isn't a new version of Dash or a ghost in disguise, I don't really care." Danny pointed out as he took his seat back.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Dad asked as he and Daniel walked towards the high school in Amity Park. "I mean, this is the first alien you've attempted in the top 20 of The List.

"I'll be fine, Dad." Daniel shrugged off. "Anyway, if Number 17 gains enough ectoplasm, he came become even higher on The List than just 17. And where are we?"

"Ya, I get it." Dad nodded his head. "Most haunted city in America. Just, good luck."

"Of course." Daniel smiled as the two walked into the front doors of Casper High School.

The two walked over to the front desk to be greeted by a little woman with a large nose. She looked up from her computer and smiled, "Hello, how can I help you?"

"It's my son's first day of school here and I just wanted to make sure all the paperwork was done." Dad said, smiling at her.

"Daniel Painter, is it?" the woman asked, searching her desk for a moment before finding a piece of paper from her cluttered desk. She pulled it out and handed the boy the paper. "Here's your schedule and your student aid should be here any minute now so you can sit there and wait for him." She smiled as she motioned over to the wall with chairs lined up against it.

"Ok, bye Dad." Daniel smiled, waving at the man before sitting down in a chair.

"See you after school, Daniel." Dad said, waving back before walking out the door and disappearing.

Daniel sighed, sitting back in the chair to look over the list of teachers. A smile appeared on his face as the name if his science teacher was who it should be. The human alias Number17 was going by at the moment.

The door opened, getting Daniel's attention to a black haired kid about his own age looking out of breath as if he had run all the way from his house.

Quickly recovering, the kid headed over to Daniel and smiled. "You're the new kid?"

"Ya, name's Daniel." The alien hunter stood up and held out his hands as the other hand threw his book bag on.

The kid snickered as he shook hands. "Funny, name's Danny."

Daniel smiled as they released hands. "Different last name, I hope."

"Fenton."

"Painter, good." Daniel handed the boy the sheet of paper.

Danny skimmed over it only for his face to drop. "Oh, you got Mr. Ledwidge, and at the same time I do."

"You don't like him?" Daniel asked as Danny started to lead them through the school.

"I haven't had the chance to know him yet, since he replaced our old science teacher just last week, but I think he hates me." Danny admitted, handing back the paper.

"Harsh." Daniel commented, trying to figure out why Number 17 was after this human.

"Anyway, Lancer's English class is this way." Danny said, pointing down the hall they had just entered. "I'm in that class with you so don't wo-"

Daniel looked back at the boy, stopping as he noticed something strange. He could've sworn he had just seen Danny's breath.

"Uhm, hey, I gotta go to the bathroom real quick." Danny said, throwing his thumb over his shoulder before moving away. He turned ad started running as he called out, "Don't worry, I'll be back!"

Daniel watched, a bit confused, as Danny's form shrunk out of sight towards the bathrooms they'd passed just past the office.

"Beware!"

Daniel turned around, quickly swinging his foot up to round kick who'd startled him only for his foot to only hit air. He stared up at the blue man floating in the air by the ceiling, realizing this was one of the many ghosts that plagued the city.

"Watch, as you Tremble befo-"

"Have you been taking lessons from Technus?" a voice asked as a white haired teen flew through the ceiling leading with his fist. The fist made contact with the back of the ghost's head, knocking it down to the ground at Daniel's feet.

"I, The Box Ghost, am Ten Times the ghost That fool is!" the Box Ghost called, getting back to his feet, so to say.

The ghost teen shot a green bolt of energy at the Box Ghost, shooting him back to the ground in almost the same spot.

Daniel watched, almost in awe as the two ghosts fought in front of him. He'd never seen ghosts fights, aliens, sure, but ghost's, never.

The teen took the Box Ghost's daze as his advantage, pulling out a thermos looking device from his belt line. He uncapped it and shot a beam of blue light at the blue ghost. Before Daniel's eyes, The Box Ghost was sucked up into the device almost the same way the Glostner's ship sucked people into it.

The ghost teen recapped the thermos and dropped down to his feet, looking Daniel in the eyes.

"Inviso-Bill?" Daniel asked.

"I prefer Danny Phantom." The teen droned. "You ok?"

"Ya." Daniel eyed the device still in the ghost's hands. "Anyway I could get one of those?"

Phantom looked at the thermos only to shrug. "I don't know. As the Fenton's."

Phantom disappeared from Daniel's sight, just in time to be missed by Danny as the teen ran back to join him.

"Hey, did I miss anything?" Danny asked, stopping next to Daniel.

"Does your family sell ghost hunting equipment?" Daniel asked, remembering Danny's last name was Fenton.

"Ya, why? Did a ghost attack?" Danny asked, looking around as if the ghost might still be around.

"Ya, but Inviso-uh, Phantom took care of him." Daniel shrugged. "I just wanted to know if your family would sell me one of those thermos looking things, you know, for protection."

"You'd have to talk to my parents about all that." Danny admitted. "If you want, I'll show you Fenton Works after school."

"That'd be great." Daniel nodded his head as a plan started to work its way into this mind.

"Alright, you got gym after Lancer, right?" Danny asked, getting back on task.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"So what's the new kid like?" Tucker asked, pulling out his math book from his locker. English class had ended not even a minute ago, allowing the trio to talk without Daniel over hearing.

"Other than the interest in ghost hunting for some strange reason." Sam rolled her eyes as she leaned against the lockers, waiting for her friend to finish in his locker.

"Meh." Danny shrugged his shoulders. "He's ok. I'm getting tired of how popular my name is though."

"What do you expect? It's from the Bible." Tucker pointed out.

"Anyway." Danny drug out, not wanting to get on that topic again. "He seems kinda like us, just wants to get through high school unscarred."

"I doubt he's like us." Sam added.

Tucker closed his locker and hosted the book bag on his back. "Ya, who in their right mind would even want to be like us?"

Danny hiccupped, getting his friend's attention. "Oh, come on! That's the third one today!"

"Hey, at least it's Falluca." Sam tried. "He never notices you just appearing in class."

"See you later." Danny called out, rushing to the bathroom. He turned into the room and quickly scanned, glad to see no one there. With a quiet "Going Ghost" the lights appeared around his waist changing him into Phantom. He flew out of the room and rushed towards the football field as a growl rumbled the air.

Danny face palmed as he saw what had happened. On the 20 yard line, the ghost dog was growling at some poor gym student who was just waiting for class to start most likely.

Danny put his middle two fingers to his lips and blew, getting the dog's attention away from whomever had aggravated him.

Danny was caught off guard as the dog turned and pounced on him, wrenching his left arm out. Danny cried out, not expecting anything like that from ol' Cujo.

Danny's voice seemed to break the spell the ghost dog was under, getting him to shake his big head. He studied Danny's face only to shrink and start licking the teen's face as an apology.

"Ok. OK! I forgive you!" Danny cried out, laughing as it started to tickle.

The dog jumped off him, wagging its tail as if it wanted to play.

Danny picked himself up, cringing at his left shoulder felt wrong. He created a bell of ecto-energy in his good hand and made sure the dog saw it. "You want the ball?"

The dog nodded its head, its tongue rolling out as it started to pant.

"Go fetch!" Danny ordered throwing the ball of energy as far as he could. The green blur that was a dog followed.

Danny turned back to the kid the dog had tried to attack, holding his left arm as it stung a bit more than he expected. He looked down as the boy picked himself up off the ground to see if he was ok only to find Daniel. "Man, you're starting to be a ghost magnet."

"Any wonder why I need something to protect myself?" Daniel asked, dusting the grass off himself.

"Have you-" ring!

Danny looked back at the school as the rest of Daniel's gym class started filing out of the building. "I gotta go." Danny said, floating upwards. "Be more careful!" he called, leaving Daniel to his class.

Danny flew into Falluca's class, transforming in the room's closet so he could invisibly make it to his chair in the back of the class room and appear to the world while the math teacher was writing a problem down on the board.

Danny felt his left shoulder, the pain really getting to him now that he was human. He sighed as he realized what had happened.

"You ok?" Sam asked, leaning over from her seat next to him.

"Ya, my shoulder's just out of joint again." Danny admitted. "I'll need you to pull it after class."

"Sure." Sam nodded her head.

"So what was it?" Tucker asked from Sam's other side.

"Foley. Manson." Mr. Falluca called, turning around. "And Fenton. Would you three like to talk outside?"

"No sir." Danny said, shrinking into his chair as his friends said something similar.

"Then refrain from talking in my class." Mr. Falluca turned back towards the board, muttering something that Danny could only hear. "How did Mr. Fleck do it?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_Man, when is lunch?_

_ I hope Paulina doesn't notice my make-up._

_ Oh, Mom's planning on pizza tonight, awesome!_

Daniel dropped his head to his desk, covering his ears as if that would stop the other students' thoughts from leaking into his brain. Dana was right, he needed to expose himself to this more often to build up his barrier. This was Ledwidge's class. This one he needed to be alert in. Ya, right. All these people's stupid thoughts were giving him a headache.

_Man, my left are is still killing me._

"Huh?" Daniel sat up, looking for the owner of that thought only to see Danny and his two friends walk into the classroom.

Danny waved with his right hand, which looked a bit awkward since he was also holding his science book with that hand.

Daniel waved back, smiling to be polite. His smile dropped as he realized it was Danny who was complaining about his left arm. Wasn't that the arm the ghost dog had messed up on Phantom when he had tried to save him? Not like Daniel needed saving but it was nice to have help.

"Quiet down!" Ledwidge ordered as his voice overlaid the bell.

Daniel's eyebrows raised, surprised Ledwidge had the class silent with just those two words when the rest of the teachers couldn't get that.

"I want to see your homework on your desks." Ledwidge ordered, picking up an opened notebook from his desk.

_Man, I never finished them._

Daniel turned to the desks behind him and saw Danny staring at a mostly blank sheet of paper.

"Daniel Painter, I presume?"

Daniel turned back towards the front to find Ledwidge standing in front of his desk. His black eyes the only give away he wasn't human. "Yes sir." Daniel nodded, doing anything he could to act like a normal teen.

"Find someone after class to get the vocab list." Ledwidge said before making a mark on his sheet and moving on to Danny behind him. "Mr. Fenton, you continue to surprise me."

Daniel turned around, only to stare in surprise. A faint, almost nonexistent green mist was being pulled from Danny's body as the boy fought to control his emotions.

"A simple assignment and you can't even complete that." Ledwidge almost laughed as he inhaled the green mist. He marked something down on the paper as he moved over to the girl Danny hung out with.

Daniel turned back around, trying to look like he was studying his new science book and the chapter the class was on but in reality, his mind was reviewing The List of Alien Outlaws on Terra Firma. Daniel smiled to himself, a memory with more space than a supercomputer had its perks.

**Alien:** Cigma Number 17

**Human Alies(es): **Michael Ledwidge

**Area of Infestation: **Madison, Wisconsin, Amity Park, Ohio

**Illegal Activities: **Illegal drain of energies

**Planet of Origin: **Sinva 2

**Alien Species: **Otopian

**Current Danger Level: **High. Cigma's goal is to build up enough ecto-energy to destroy Earth. Has jumped up in The List three times in the past month.

**Special Abilities: **Negative Telepathy, Ecto-collecting, Extraterrestrial level 4 speed, level 3 strength, level 5 flying, shap-shifting.

Negative telepathy, no wonder Daniel wasn't able to pick up any of Number 17's thoughts. Ledwidge couldn't read minds but he also had a permanent barrier surrounding his thoughts.

Ecto-collecting! That's what Ledwidge was doing. But how was he collecting ecto-energy from Danny?

Fenton.

Fenton Works.

That had to be it. His parents worked with ecto-energy so some must have attached to him.

But why was Ledwidge aggravating Danny to obtain it? Daniel found himself biting his pen in frustration. He didn't know enough about ghosts to get anywhere with this. Too bad Casper didn't have a ghost class.

"Open your Earth Science books to page 404."

Daniel yawned as he made his way back to Lancer's English classroom. The bell for the end of the day had rung about five minutes ago and everyone had left. Well, everyone but Danny who had somehow gained a detention and his two friends who were in the hallway outside the door waiting for their friend.

As Daniel walked up the girl was showing her friend a page from her notebook, getting a laugh from him.

"Hey, Sam and Tucker, right?" Daniel asked before sitting on the floor next to them.

"Ya." Sam nodded her head as she took her notebook back. "Oh, right, you wanna talk to Danny's parents."

"Ya." Daniel nodded. "Hey, what all do you know about ghosts?"

"Not much, really." Tucker said, looking reserved.

Daniel lowered his barrier only to be bombarded with concealed worry. It wasn't thoughts formed into words, but emotions and, what felt kind of like swimming in soup. The two friends were aiming to protect Danny and they thought Daniel was a threat. But why? Why would they even think Daniel would hurt Danny?

"So what you doing in Amity Park?" Sam asked.

"My mom got a job at Axion Labs." Daniel lied, bringing up the barrier as his headache was already coming back.

"Oh, so she might run into Valerie's dad." Tucker said.

"Maybe." Daniel shrugged, having no idea who Valerie was. "How long is Danny's detention?"

"About an hour normally." Sam said, going back to her notebook in her lab.

Daniel leaned upwards, trying to see what the girl was working on only to find different styled logos all ghost related and used the letters DP.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Danny followed Hannah out of Lancer's detention, surprised and a bit confused still at how the blond haired tomboy had even managed to get a detention in the first place.

He stopped just outside the door at seeing Sam, Tucker, and Daniel laughing about the Dead Teacher series.

"I still love the- oh, hi Danny." Sam stood up, straightening her skirt as she threw her spider back on.

"Hey." Danny looked over at the blond teen as he and Tucker stood up. "Ready?"

"I guess." Daniel shrugged, dusting himself off.

"Have they warned you yet?" Danny asked, putting his hands in his pockets as he lead the group out of the school building.

"About your parents? A little." Daniel nodded. "Any way I can just talk to your mom?"

"I think it's both or none." Danny shrugged.

The four made it to Fenton Works quickly passing the time with movie or game references.

Danny opened the door, admitting to only himself that he still never knew what to expect when entering his own house. Seeing no one in the living room, he let the three in behind him. "I guess they're in the lab. Let me go find them." Danny said, hurrying towards the kitchen.

He made his way carefully down the basement stairs and sighed as he saw his parents hunched over a set of blue prints. Always better to get them with an ink pen than a weapon in their hands.

"Mom, Dad." Danny announced, getting the two to turned towards him. "A kid from school wants to ask you stuff about ghosts."

That did it. Danny quickly sidestepped out of their way as they rushed up the stairs.

By the time Danny made it back to the living room, the thermos he brought to school in his hands, Daniel was sitting on the sofa bombarded with questions.

"Can he ask what he wanted to?" Jazz's voice asked, getting everyone to look over at the stairs to see Danny's sister. "I'm sure he doesn't want to hear your life story of ghost hunting."

"Actually, I was wondering about ghost energy." Daniel started. "Ectoplasm, right? Can it collect on a living human?"

_Great, one of those scientific conversations._ Danny sighed as he made eye contact with Sam and Tucker. He motioned towards the stairs and the two disappeared almost quicker than Danny could in ghost form.

Danny smiled, sitting down the thermos on the kitchen table before quickly grabbing three sodas from the fridge and make it up to his room.

"Did you grab any munchies?" Tucker asked as he grabbed a can from Danny's hand and fell into the computer chair.

"Dude, be happy I grabbed some Boyle." Danny rolled his eyes as he handed Sam's hers. "Any idea why he's into ghosts?"

"Not really." Sam shrugged, sitting down on a beanbag by the TV. She carefully kicked a controller away from her foot space before looking back at Danny. "He didn't say anything about really fearing them."

"He didn't say much about himself." Tucker admitted, rummaging through his bag with his free hand as he sat down his soda on the computer table next to him.

Danny sat down on his bed, taking a sip of the bubbly drink. "I don't get him." Danny admitted.

"Man, he's not out to get you." Tucker rolled. He pulled out a half crumpled bag of chips with success written on his face.

"This is my life we're talking about." Danny tried to point out. "He may not be after Fenton, but Phantom, who knows."

"Just keep your eyes opened." Sam tried, picking up the wire for the controller so she could turn on the console. She threw her foot up, tapping the on button for the TV only to get a grown.

"Sam, the remote's under you." Danny whined, only to hiccup as the familiar blue mist appeared. He slammed his drink down on his nightstand as he stood up. "Can I have at least one afternoon?"

"Bring some good chips." Tucker ordered, looking at the old bag with disgust as a crumb fell from his mouth.

Danny rolled his eyes as he called out the cold that was his ghost half, disappearing as he flew out of the room.

He reappeared once he was a couple of houses away from Fenton Works only to hear a high pitched wail coming from Mr. White's backyard.

Danny held his ears as he flew over to the neighbor's house. The noise had to be above the pitch humans could hear, but a dog was whining a few house down, showing it heard the sound.

Danny stepped down onto Mr. White's roof, holding tightly to his ears as he tried to block out the noise. What it was coming from almost made him drop his hands.

In the old man's backyard stood an almost dog faced humanoid. It was leaning backwards as a light green mist-like substance was being drug out of an ectopus. The sound died as the creature dissolved into nothing but mist only to be sucked into the dog-thing.

"Not the way I'd want to go." Danny mumbled as he slowly let go of his ears. He almost jumped backwards as the black eyes of the dog-thing stared straight at him.

"Come down here, Phantom." It called in a surprisingly velvet voice.

Danny's eyes widened in surprise as he found himself following it's orders.

"That's a good Phantom." It smiled as Danny's feet crushed the dying grass. "Give me your energy."

Danny's eyes widened in fear and panic as the same green mist appeared from his chest, instantly weakening him. He knew he needed to get away but no matter what he told body, nothing worked. All he could do was stair into the beady black eyes and feel his strength leave him.

The dog-ghost thing laughed as it inhaled the energy. "Your ectoplasm is delicious! So much better than normal Earth ghosts'."

"Earth…ghosts?" Danny managed to ask before his legs gave out on him and the white rings appeared around his waist.

A growl emitted from Danny's attacker as he was forced to stop pulling energy from the boy as he turned human, falling onto his face.

"I'll let you live, for now." The dog-thing growled as it took it's foot and kicked the now black haired teen in the chest. "You'll be useful to me."

Danny struggled to turn his head up only to watch as the ghost teleported away in a green and purple mist. He curled in on himself, weak and a bit frazzled in the mind. Somehow he managed to pull out his phone and set a text message before blacking out to the world around hm.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Thanks, Mrs. Fenton." Daniel nodded, putting his new Fenton Thermos and net gun into his book bag before throwing it onto his back.

"Come back if you have any more questions." Maddie smiled.

"Or if you just want to hear me blather on about ghosts." Jack added.

Daniel smiled, wondering how Danny and his sister dealt with having these two as parents.

Maddie's attention was caught by something behind Daniel only for the door to slam shut as she asked, "Sam, Tucker?"

Daniel almost got pushed back into the sofa as the two Fenton's rushed out of the house. Daniel quickly recovered and followed behind them only to stop before stepping through the door.

"He fell out of his window." Sam explained in a panicked voice as she and Tucker forced their way back inside, Danny's limp form hanging between them.

"Lay him on the sofa." Maddie ordered.

The two did as their friend's mother said, positioning the pillows around his head.

"How on Earth did he fall out the window?" Jack asked, eyeing the two friends for answers as Maddie checked as best she could for bruising or broken bones.

"Mom?" Danny's voice asked weakly.

Daniel turned towards the boy on the sofa, curiosity keeping him in the house.

"It was a ghost." Danny admitted, opening his eyes to look up at his parents. "It startled me…. and I must've fallen backwards."

"We'll catch it, Danny-boy!" Jack called, pulling out a device from his jumpsuit's many pockets that turned out to be a collapsible gun. "Come on, Mads, no ghost messes with a Fenton and gets away with it."

Maddie pulled up her hood and threw a look at Sam and Tucker as she ordered, "Tell Jazz what happened."

"Course, Mrs. F." Tucker nodded as the two adults ran out of the house.

"You need me for anything?" Daniel asked, his headache returning but he still wanted to be polite and something was telling him Danny wasn't exactly telling the truth.

"No, we've got it." Sam said, looking over at Danny with worry on her face.

"See you tomorrow." Tucker smiled, his eyes giving himself away.

Daniel smiled back and threw a "get better" towards Danny before walking out of the house and making sure to avoid the two Fenton's scanning the area for the ghost Danny had mentioned.

Footsteps came up behind Daniel just in time to warn him of a hand clasping on his shoulder.

"Hey man, what's all that about?" Willy asked as he took his hand away and motioned back towards the Fenton's.

"Their son got scared by a ghost." Daniel shrugged.

"Oh, so they're the ghost experts?" Dana asked.

"I'll stick to being the expert on food." Joe-Joe commented with a smile only for his stomach to growl. "By the way, any food around? I'm starving."

"There's a fast food place we have to pass to get home we can hit." Daniel remembered.

"I don't know." Emma said, crossing her arms over her chest. "This seems like a close nit town. Us here would only get people asking questions."

"You're only saying that cause Nasty Burger looks like a Burger King." Joe complained, hunching down into his shoulders.

"Aren't you supposed to be trying to blend?" Dana asked, ignoring the meat verses veggie fight starting up.

"Fine, we'll go straight home, but I still need your help." Daniel admitted. The argument behind him quieting down, gaining the blond haired teen a smile. "Alright, I'll cook up something when we get there. Anybody up for crepes?"

"Yes!" Joe exclaimed, punching the air.

The group of five headed towards the neighborhood on the other side of Casper with only one complaint from Joe about the Nasty Burger and a few comments from Emma before they made it to the house.

Being the paranoid one that he is, Daniel shushed his friends quiet before quickly looking around for anything out of the ordinary. It may sound weird for anyone who's life wasn't a constant battle hand-to-hand, or tentacle, or claw, or… you get the picture, but for Daniel's life it was something normal. The last alien he'd hunted down only reminded him of that even more when he came home only to find the place ridge up to explode. If Joe hadn't have noticed a stray wire there might not have been anything left of Earth's Alien Hunter.

"Hey Daniel." Dad said, opening the door of the house. "Inside's clear."

"Thanks Dad." Daniel said before taking one last look around. Seeing nothing strange, he led his friends inside and straight towards the kitchen.

"So, what'd the Fenton's have to say?" Willy asked, staying with the rest on the safe side of the kitchen as Daniel started to work on some seafood crepes, keeping enough aside so the resident vegetarian could have hers without the crab, crawfish, and shrimp.

"Well, ectoplasm can stick itself onto humans but it no longer can form as any type of energy without a ghost matrix to keep it alive, so to say, since the stuff's supposed to be all dead in the first place." Danny explained as he cracked open a few eggs to start working on the crepes themselves. "So how Number 17 was able to drain ectoplasm from Danny in class is still confusing me."

"Is he human?" Dana asked, handing Danny a frying pan.

Danny looked at her, not taking the pan out of her hand as his mind stalled. "What?"

"Is he human?" Dana repeated, pointing the pan into Daniel's hand.

"You don't think he's like those ghost-like creatures that used to live on Zimmia?" Emma asked.

"Na, he's human." Daniel said, taking the pan from Dana's hand only to stare at it. Somehow he had created a pan that was half cast iron and half stainless steel. No good for crepes but it did help him remember something from earlier that day. "Joe, looked up if Zimmions can breed with Earthlings."

"You sound like some cheepo B scyfi movie." Joe commented as he pulled The List out of Daniel's back pack.

"What else would you call it?" Daniel asked, reforming the fry pan so it was usable for crepes.

"Point taken." Joe opened the device that could pass as a laptop and started typing.

A few minutes passed by quietly for all except for the sound of the crepes solidifying and keys typing away. Why didn't Daniel just create the seafood dinner like he did with his friends, family, and just about everything else? Simple, he had a fondness to cook. Came in handy too when he lived alone.

"Ok, technically it is possible but not really recommended since Zimmions have three genders and it takes one of each to create any type of offspring." Joe explained.

"But it's possible?" Daniel asked, flipping a delicate crepe to finished cooking.

"Ya, and the offspring that have been created look relatively human." Joe mentioned, turning the laptop around.

Daniel put the newly formed crepe onto the collecting pile before studying the picture of a humanoid girl of about seven in human years. A side note was next to the picture reading _Even though the hybrid appears human, they still cannot digest any Earth foods, limiting their diet to that of what comes from the Ghost Zone._

"The Ghost Zone." Daniel stated, trying to recall something he read on the bus trip to Amity Park. "Isn't that where the Zimmions first lived?"

"Until the Otopians destroyed their planet." Emma informed. "They fled here or to other parts of the Ghost Zone."

"Ok, why is that?" Willy asked. "With as big as the Ghost Zone is and the only portals connect it to Earth?"

"There's a portal on Sinva 2." Dad reminded, "That's how the Otopians took over Zimm."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Daniel exclaimed, creating a chopping board and a stack of green onions to take out his frustration with a knife. "Danny ate cafeteria food so that crosses out being a hybrid. At least with the Zimmions."

"What if one of his parents were a hybrid?" Dana asked.

Daniel stopped chopping to look up at Joe, who in turned shrugged. "There's been no reports of a hybrid having kids. Sorry."

"Great, so back to square one." Daniel growled, slamming down his knife, embedding it into the wooden board only to jump at the sound of the doorbell. Quickly he dematerialized his friend, creating his mother to take over the cooking as he headed towards the door.

"Hello?" Daniel asked as he opened the door only to be confronted by two men in white suits.

"There has been reports of high ecto-readings emitting from the vicinity." The black skinned man informed, pulling out a cell phone sized device from his inside pocket. It flicked open and started pulsating a beep very fast as if it was a metal detector right on top of a treasure. "Have you or are you in close quarters with a ghost?"

"Danny Phantom saved me twice today, could that be it?" Daniel asked, not sure what else they could be picking up. If they did this to every person who came in contact with ghosts, they'd never get a break.

"Beware! For I am-"

"Get out of my house, creep!" Mom cried, getting the three at the door to turn towards the living room only to witness his mother swinging a broom stick at the Box Ghost from earlier that day.

"Foolish Humans!" The Box Ghost proclaimed, flying quickly out of the way of the swinging broom. "You cannot so easily- oomph!"

The blue short man was too caught up in his triumph, he forgot he could go intangible and felt the bristled end of the broom come down on his head. The ghost fell onto the sofa, dazed.

"Freeze, ghost." The white man in white ordered as he pulled out a gun from somewhere in his tight suit, his partner following suit. They jumped forwards as if to protect Daniel.

"Men, I don't think guns are needed." Daniel said, placing a hand on each man's necks. The two froze as their thoughts were shifted, erasing any memories if there being any ghost in the house as Dad rushed in from the kitchen with the Fenton Thermos, sucking in the Box Ghost.

Daniel dropped his hands as the two men looked around the living room. They turned towards Mom, broom still in her hands, as the white man said, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Our information must have been wrong."

"No problem." Mom smiled back.

The two took that as their cue to leave, Daniel closing the door behind them.

"Where the heck did The Box Ghost come from?" Daniel asked, eyeing down his projected parents.

"This." Dad said, rattling the Fenton Thermos. "I didn't know they came with their own ghost."

"I'm sure they weren't supposed to." Daniel commented.

"Well, I'm going to get back to dinner." Mom said, leaving the living room with a "humph" muttering something about how stupid the ghost was.

"Let me get the net gun." Daniel followed his mother back into the kitchen. He came back to the living room and, with the help of Dad, they cleared the center of the living room. "Ready?" Daniel asked, taking a step back with the net gun pointed where the coffee table had been a moment before.

Dad pointed the thermos in the same area, hitting the release button just as Daniel shot a net, capturing The Box Ghost before he could realize he was free.

"How Dare you keep me trapped in your Cylindrical container!" The Box Ghost announced, gripping the netting to try to find a weak point.

"Don't bother, Box Ghost." Daniel said, trying to make himself sound as threatening as needed. "You won't be escaping until I'm done with you." He smiled as he created his friends around the Box Ghost, getting an expression of awe and surprise on the ghost's face.

"What are you?" the Box Ghost asked, eyeing Daniel.

"Let's just say Alien Hunter turned Ghost Hunter." Daniel admitted. "How'd you end up in the Fenton's inventory?"

"Phantom must've forgotten to dump me back into the Ghost Zone before putting the Thermos back." The ghost shrugged, giving up on fighting the net. "How would I know? I was crammed in that stupid thing."

"What is Danny Phantom?" Daniel asked, risking asking in hope for answers.

"What's in it for me?" the Box Ghost asked, smiling.

Daniel quickly created a box about the size of a microwave in his hands, showing the ghost some of his powers. "Any size you want, I can create."

The Box Ghost's eyes widened at that, his obsession clearly being satisfied.


End file.
